I Write Tragedies
by Karen at the Disco
Summary: Everyone knows Joandra and Sirius Black. To the world, theirs is a storybook marriage. But behind the doors of their home a different story emerges. Joandra has always tried to deny Sirius's subtle putdowns, control, and jealousy. She has no bruises, only
1. Chapter 1

The long black limousine pulled up slowly, and came to a stop, in a long line of cars just like it. It was a balmy evening in early June, and two Aurors stepped forward in practiced unison, as Joandra Alvar Black emerged gracefully from the car in front of the east entrance to the Minister of Magic's house. She smiled to one of the Aurors as he saluted. She was short and stocky, in white evening robes that draped elegantly from one shoulder. Her hair was dirty blonde and swept up in a neat French twist which showed off her petite bare neck to perfection.

Her skin was pale, her eyes dark blue, and she moved with enormous poise and grace in high-heeled silver sandals. Her eyes danced as she smiled, and stepped aside as a Daily Prophet photographer flashed her picture. And then another, as her husband stepped out of the car and took his place beside her. Sirius Black was powerfully built, a man of forty-five, he had made his first fortune just by being a member of the Black family, invested it brilliantly, and by forty owned the most famous Dark Arts shop in Knockturn Alley. Sirius Black had long since turned his fortune into big business. And he was very big business. Now, he was the Minister's advisor. Fudge's right hand and his go- to man.

The photographer snapped their photograph again, and then they swiftly disappeared into the Minister of Magic's house. They made a striking couple, and had for seven years. Joandra was thirty-seven, and had been twenty-eight when Sirius discovered her in Wales.

Sirius spoke in powerful clipped tones that convinced the listerner instantly that he knew exactly what he was doing. He had gray eyes that pursued his quarry to all corners of the room, and he had a way of listening to several conversations at once, while still managing to seem intent on the person to whom he was speaking. There were times, people who knew hin well said, when his eyes seemed to bore right through you, and other times when you felt he was about to caress you. There was something powerful and almost hypnotizing about him. Just looking at him, sleekly put together in his dinner robes, his dark hair smoothly combed, he was someone one wanted to know and be close to.

He had had the same effect on Joandra when they met, when she was barely more than a girl in Wales. She'd been a receptionist at a small wizarding newspaper. She was awkward and shy, but she had a girl-next-door quality about her that everyone loved. Sirius was bowled over whenhe first saw her. Her words as well as her eyes were searing.

"What do you do here, pretty girl? Break all the boys' hearts, I bet," he'd said to her. She didn't look a minute over twenty, thought she was nearly eight years older.

"Not likely," she laughed. He was negotiating to buy the company. And he had, two months later. And as soon as he did, he made her editor, and sent her to London to teach her first everything she needed to learn about writing the news, and then how to do her hair and makeup. And the effect, when he saw her again, was impressive. Withing months, her career was off and running.

It was Sirius who helped extricate her from the nightmare she had been living, with a husband she'd been married to since she was eighteen, who had commited every possible kind of abuse on her. Michael Bobbyt had been her Hogwarts sweetheart. Then Sirius Black made her an irresistible offer. He promised he could get her a possition in the research department of the Ministry of Magic, and promised her that if she came, he'd help her sort her life out.

He came to Wales himself in a limousine. Shemet him with one small clothing bag and a look of terror. She got in the car with him without a sound, and they drove all the way to London together. It took Michael months to figure out where she was, and by then she had filed for divorce, with Sirius' help, and a year later, they were married. She had been Mrs. Sirius Black for seven years, and Michael Bobbyt and his unthinkable abuse on her were a dim nightmare. She was a star now. She lead a fairy-tale life. She was known and respected and adored. And Sirius treated her like a princess. As they walked into Fudge's house arm in arm, and stood in ther reception line, she looked relaxed and happy. Joandra Alvar Black had no worries. She was married to an important, powerful man, who loved her, and she knew it. She knew nothing bad would ever happen to her again. Sirus Black wouldn't let it. She was safe now.


	2. Chapter 2

I Write Tragedies

Chapter Two

Fudge shook hands with Sirius and Joandra in the East Room, then said in an under voice to Sirius that he wanted to catch a private moment with him later. Sirius nodded, and smiled at him, as Joandra chatted with Fudge's new girlfriend,

Claire Emmy Droggards. They knew each other well. Joandra had bought several books from her father's bookshop. And as Joandra drifted into the room on her husband's arm, heads turned, people smiled and nodded, everyone recognized her. It was a long, long way from Wales. She didn't know where Michael Bobbyt was now, and no longer cared. The life she'd known with him seemed entirely unreal now. This was her reality, a world of power and important people, and she was a bright star among them.

They mingled with the other guests, and the French Ambassador chatted with Joandra amiably and introduced her to his wife, while Sirius moved away to speak to a senator who was head of the Wizardly Senate Ethics Committee. There was a matter before them that Sirius had been waiting to discuss with him. Joandra saw them out of the corner of her eye, as the Brazilian Ambassador approached her, with an attractive Congress witch from the United States. It was, as always, an interesting evening.

Her dinner partners, when they moved into the dining room, where a Senator from Italy and a Congress wizard from Columbia, both of whom she had met before, and who vied all evening for her attention. Sirius was sitting between Claire Emmy Droggards and Fudge. It was late evening before he joined his wife again, and they moved smoothly onto the dance floor.

"How was it?" He asked casually, watching several key players as he danced with her. Sirius rarely lost track of the people around him, and he usually had an agenda, of those he wanted to see, and meet, and touch base with again. He rarely, if ever, missed opportunities, and never simply spent an evening without some plan to what he was doing. He had spent a few minutes in quiet aside with the Minister, and then Fudge had invited him to lunch that weekend to continue the conversation. But Sirius was concentrating on his wife now.

"So how was Senator Smith? What did he have to say for himself?"

"The usual. We talked about the new tax bill," she smiled at her handsome husband. She was a worldly woman now, of considerable sophistication and enormous polish. She was, as Sirius liked to say, a creation entirely of his making. He took full credit for how far she had come, and the enormous success she'd enjoyed on his newspaper company, and he loved to tease her about it.

"Ready to call it a night?" Sirius asked, as he assessed the room again, and decided that he had already touched base with everyone that mattered, and the party was nearly over now. Fudge and Claire Emmy Droggards had just retired to their room, and their guests were free to go now. Sirius saw no reason to stay any longer. And Joandra was happy to go home, she had to be in the Ministry of Magic early the next morning.

They left the party quietly, and their driver was waiting for them near the door, as they made a graceful exit. Joandra settled comfortably into the limousine beside her husband. It was a long way from the parties she'd gone to with Michael Bobbyt. Sometimes she still had trouble believing that her two very different lives were part of one lifetime. This was all so different. She moved to a world of Ministers and Kings and Queens, and politicians and princes and tycoons like her husband. Joandra could not believe her luck. And Sirius was just so good to her.


	3. Chapter 3

I Write Tragedies

Chapter Three

"What did you and Fudge talk about tonight?" Joandra asked, stifling a yawn. She looked as lovely and as beautifully put together as she had at the beginning of the evening. And more than she realized, she was an incredible asset to her husband. Rather than being recognized as the man who invented her, Sirius was seen as Joandra Alvar Black's husband, and if he knew it, he never acknowledged it to Joandra.

"The Minister and I discussed something very interesting," Sirius said, looking vague, "I'll tell you about it when I'm free to talk about it."

"When will that be?" She asked with renewed interest. She was not only his wife, but had become a skilled listener.

"I'm not sure yet. I'm having lunch with him on Saturday at the Leaky Cauldron."

"It must be important." But it all was. Anything that involved the Minister was potentially a big story.

They drove a short distance, chatting about the party. And Sirius asked her if she'd seen Troy Novus.

"Only from a distance. I didn't realize he was back from Washington." He had been in seclusion for the past six months, after the death of his wife the year before. It had been a terrible story, which Joandra remembered all too clearly. She had been kidnapped by Death Eaters, and Troy Novus had handled the negotiations himself. After collecting the ransom, the Death Eaters had panicked and killed her. Troy had resigned from his position at the Ministry shortly after.

"He's a fool," Sirius said without preamble or pity for him. "He never should have tried to handle it himself. Anyone could have predicted that would happen."

"I don't suppose he believed that," Joandra said quietly, glancing out the window. And a moment later, they were home, and she and Sirius walked up the stairs to their room.

"I have to be in the Ministry early tomorrow," she said, as he started to take off his dress robe, and she slipped her dress off and stood before him in nothing more than pantyhose and her high-heeled silver sandals. She had a spectacular body which was never wasted on him, nor had it been in her previous life, though Michael Bobbyt was extraordinarily different. The one brutal and unkind and rough with her, indifferent to her feelings, or cries of pain when he hurt her, the other so smooth, so careful, so seemingly respectful of her. Michael Bobbyt had once broken her arms, and she had broken her leg when he pushed her down the stairs. That had been the night right after she met Sirius, and he had been in a jealous rage about him. She had sworn to him that she wasn't involved with Sirius, and she hadn't been then. He was her employer and they were just friends, the rest had come later, after she left Wales and moved to London to work for him at his newspaper company. Within a month of her arrival in London she and Sirius had become lovers, but her divorce was already in the works then.

"Why are you going in early?" Sirius asked over his shoulder as he disappeared into his black marble bathroom. They had bought the house five years before, from a wealthy Arab wizard. There was a full gym and a swimming pool downstairs, beautiful reception rooms Sirius liked to use to entertain, and all six of the house's bathrooms were marble. The house had four bedrooms, a master, and three guest rooms.

There was no plan to turn any of the guest rooms into a nursery. Sirius had made it clear to her right from the beginning that he didn't want any children. He hadn't enjoyed the two he had when they were growing up, and he had no desire to have more, in fact he absolutely forbade it. And after a brief period of mourning for the babies she would never have, at Sirius's insistence, Joandra went to a healer who gave her a potion that made it impossible to have children. She though it was better in some ways, she had half a dozen abortions during her years with Michael Bobbyt, and she wasn't sure if she could have a normal baby. It seemed easier to give in to Sirius's wish and not take any chances. He had given her so much, and wanted such great things for her, she could see his point that children would only be an obstacle she'd have to overcome, and a burden on her career. But there were still times when she regretted the irreversibility of her decision. At thirty-four, a lot of her friends were still having babies, and all she had was Sirius now. She wondered if she'd regret it even more when she grew older and had no grandchildren, or children of her own. But it was a small price to pay for the life she shared with Sirius Black. And it had been so important to Sirius. He had insisted on it.


End file.
